Alfredo Rostgaard (1943 – December 27, 2004) was a

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

graphic designer A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography, or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, ...

and

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...

. He was one of the leading designers of revolutionary Cuban film and political posters through his work for the Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos (ICAIC), Organisation for Solidarity with the People of Africa, Asia and Latin America, Casa de las Americas, Comisión de Orientación Revolucionaria and other Cuban agencies.

Early life and education

Born in Guantánamo in 1943, Rostgaard studied at the José Joaquín Tejada school of art in Santiago de Cuba.

Art

He is one of the most prolific of the revolutionary designers that contributed to Cuba's massive output of posters during the mid 60s to mid 70s. In 1963 he was appointed artistic director of ''Mella'', the magazine of the union of young

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

s. Rostgaard was a

caricaturist A caricaturist is an artist who specializes in drawing caricatures. List of caricaturists * Abed Abdi (born 1942) * Al Hirschfeld (1903–2003) * Alex Gard (1900–1948) * Alexander Saroukhan (1898–1977) * Alfred Grévin (1827–1892) * Alf ...

for the magazine where he learned to mix humor and politics. After arriving in Havana in 1965, Rostgaard began designing posters for the ICAIC and became artistic director of OSPAAAL in 1966, where he resided for nine years. From 1975 he worked for the Union of Cuban Writers and Artists. He also designed book and magazine covers and layouts. Rostgaard's work has been widely exhibited and he has won a number of awards for his designs.Raymond Vezina, ''Affiches de Cuba'', Montreal: Centre de Design d'UQAM, 1996

Artistic style

Referencing pop art and

psychedelic Psychedelics are a subclass of hallucinogenic drugs whose primary effect is to trigger non-ordinary states of consciousness (known as psychedelic experiences or "trips").Pollan, Michael (2018). ''How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of ...

poster art, Rostgaard's work also includes figurative painting and

Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the Art movement, visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore th ...

-inspired commercial graphics. The majority of his designs are playful and fun, a product of the artist's ability to incorporate a sense of humor into sometimes very serious subjects. Rostgaard died in Havana on December 27, 2004.

References

Cuban artists 1943 births 2004 deaths {{Cuba-artist-stub